Kindertransport Memorial Activism

Since the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Kindertransport (2013–2014), sites of Kindertransport memory have increasingly been used to promote human rights’ causes. Frank Meisler's transnational memorial network has, for example, been the backdrop of in-person and virtual protests over contemporary refugee policies. Most recently, Meisler's Kindertransport memorial in London, Flor Kent's memorial to Sir Nicholas Winton and the Kinder in Prague, Yael Bartana's memorial in Frankfurt, and a new memorial dedicated to Truus Wijsmuller- Meijer in Alkmaar, the Netherlands (2020) were used to draw attention to the ongoing Ukrainian refugee crisis. The memorials were draped in Ukrainian flags and blue and yellow balloons, and messages of safe passage written on brown luggage labels were placed on them.

This international memorial activism around Kindertransport memorials calls for solidarity with refugees. But it also sheds a questioning light on our histories and memories of welcome and refuge, which differ according to the different national contexts each memorial is located within. Thus while activism in Britain has long been used to show continuous support for refugees past and present, it was only with the tragic events in Ukraine that there was a palpable shift in Britain's relationship with the Kindertransport and universal human rights. The memorial activism no longer solely focused on expressing empathy but also questioned whether we “should … look to the Kindertransport as the standout model of a successful rescue” scheme because it was “not without its flaws.” Instead of resting on laurels, in other words, it is important to learn from mistakes. Previous memorial activism around Meisler's London memorial had started this process of calling for governmental action to aid present day child refugees. For example, campaigns promoted by Lord Alf Dubs and Safe Passage (SP) and British Rabbis had called for “a modern day Kindertransport” whereby safe and legal routes could be opened for refugee children to come to Britain unaccompanied or to be reunited with their families already living here. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, memorial activism even called for a “Ukrainetransport” (as Rabbi Jonathan Romain, a second-generation Kind, put it), imagined as a family transport to bring children with their families to Britain.